IL's Biggest 15: Duke Lacrosse Scandal

Inside Lacrosse is celebrating 15 years of being The Source of the Sport. To commemorate our 15th year, we're counting down the biggest 15 stories of the IL Era. Coming in at No. 2 is negative stories surrounding the sport generating mainstream media headlines.

To shed light on how close the Duke lacrosse program came to being canceled and the cascading effects had that come to pass, Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese, in his first year as an assistant at Duke in 2006, and former midfielder and captain Ed Douglas talked to IL about their actions to try and preserve the team in May and June 2006.

The far-reaching impact of the 2006 Duke Lacrosse season has been well-covered, from a team party that stemmed charges for three players that were later dropped and their innocence declared, to the resignation of program patriarch coach Mike Pressler, to the hiring of John Danowski, to the awarding of an additional year of eligibility for players in the classes of 2007-09, to ultimately the 2010 NCAA championship. Outside of the sport, the disgraced Durham DA was disbarred and the accuser experienced a dramatic criminal backslide.

But for all the coverage, one story has gone relatively under-reported. Between Pressler's departure and the announced reinstatement of the program on June 6, 2006, first-year Duke assistant and former Blue Devil middie Kevin Cassese acted essentially as an informal steward for the program, working with players, parents and athletic department administrators to protect the future of the program.

After the end of the second semester in May, one of Cassese's most important duties was working with junior midfielder and future captain Ed Douglas and other team members on drafting a series of documents, including a mission statement and a team standard, meant to alter the external perception of the program, particularly on campus and with new university president Richard Broadhead.

About a week before the announced reinstatement, Cassese and Broadhead met one-on-one to discuss the program, including the contents of what became the mission statement and team standard among much more. Below, read what Cassese says are his first public comments on the meeting. But first, some context on what brought Cassese and Douglas to the point of such significant influence.

The Context of the Meeting

What was the mood like around the ’06 team, coming off a championship game appearance, compared to your junior and senior year?
KC: I had a unique perspective because I wasn’t with the team in ’04 or ’05. In 2004, I was working with Brine in my first year out of college, though I was still connected to the program through Coach Pressler and Alberici. In ’05, I was at Stony Brook as an assistant coach and in 2006, I was back at Duke after Coach Alberici got the job at Army. I remember literally sitting in the stands at the Final Four in Philly in 2005, so proud of the Duke program getting to the brink of a national championship and the farthest this program has ever gone, to the next year being in the same meeting rooms and realizing the tremendous momentum the program had at that point. There’s no doubting the momentum, the energy; the recruiting was unbelievable. Every top recruit in the country was in our office, meeting with Coach Pressler, and everything was going well.

Ed, you had a unique path to joining the Duke lacrosse team, not as a recruited player out of Gilman, but choosing to walk on during your sophomore year. What was that process like and how did it color your perspective throughout the 2006 process?
ED: Weird story. I was playing in high school, I loved lacrosse but I considered the college experience would be more of an academic experience, I think that probably came from my family’s outlook on academics, so when I went to Duke I was excited about the biomedical engineering program. But during my freshman year, I felt like there was something missing. So sophomore year, I decided to try out for the lacrosse team. I had one of my coaches reach out to Coach Pressler, I had a workout and joined the team. I do think having the experience as a non-athlete helped me learn about what Duke is like outside of the team.

Had the success altered the perception of the team on campus?
KC: That was one of the things that was so frustrated for me to watch. I wanted to tell people “You’re only hearing one perspective, which was negative.” Every experience I had as a student athlete or a coach at Duke was positive. I had nothing but great relationships with the folks on the academic side of campus, the deans, the president, you name it. I don’t think it was because we were winning championships, I think it was because there was a tremendous amount of mutual respect. If there was any animosity, it certainly wasn’t on the surface. That includes players, parents, alums, coaches administrators and other students.

The scandal arose after Duke played Loyola in San Diego, then the Blue Devils played North Carolina and Cornell before the season was suspended and ultimately canceled. Prior to the Loyola game, was there anything unusual about the way the season was progressing, building toward a championship?
KC: It’s funny you mention the North Carolina game. I don’t even remember that game. I couldn’t tell you who won. At least for me, when things started to come to light, it became a lot of our focus. There were issues with the Cornell game that I didn’t know about, as Coach Pressler was kind of shielding us from [the mounting trouble that lead to charges]. I could tell our team was terrible vs. Cornell; we were so flat. It was an interesting way it unfolded from the Cornell game to what should’ve been the Georgetown game.

After learning about the party, what was your sense of how rough things were going to get as news interest built and repercussions started to mount?
KC: It was surreal. I’d literally go to work, walk through and past news crews that were there for us, not for the right reasons, go to practice — there were news crews lining the sidelines — then you’d go home and you’d watch it. You’d see clips of practice and look at the graphic over top that said “scandal” and all the negativity flowing our way was tough to watch. We were in incredible disbelief. Watching it unfold, we were saying “What can we do to make this stop, when is it going to stop?” A lot of it wasn’t our place, it was deferring to administrators and lawyers and people who get paid an awful lot of money to do that. But it didn’t feel right, I wanted to go on camera and say, “You’ve got this all wrong. This isn’t who we are.”

What was the process between coach Pressler’s resignation and the program’s suspension like? What was your role or official status?
KC: The day Coach Pressler resigned was a difficult day for me personally because he’s like a father figure to me, certainly he’s my mentor in coaching. I’ll never forget the day when he came to us in the coaches’ room and told us he’s no longer the coach at Duke. I was reduced to tears. I couldn’t believe this man was being discarded that way and I was really frustrated by that. We didn’t know anything, myself or the other assistant coach Jon Lantzy, we didn’t know what [Pressler’s departure] meant for us. Speaking for myself, I didn’t really care at that point. We didn’t know what to do for a period of time. It took me a week or so to come back into the office. I kept coming in to answer questions if I could, to be sounding board for the kids, to talk to parents, administrators and figure out what I could do. Coach Pressler approached me and asked me to step up and take the lead for the program. He kept saying “You need to be there for the kids and their parents.” He wanted to eventually help me sustain the program. I don’t remember the exact time that elapsed, but at some point the administration realized I was serving in this role and it made sense to retain me some way, to keep doing what I was doing. For me, it was about doing what Coach Pressler asked me to do, which was all I’d ever done, and the other part was working with alums and my friends to stop his downward spiral to save and protect this program that we love.

PREPARING FOR THE MEETING

How did this meeting come about, and when word of that it was going to happen came down, what was your reaction?
KC: The first thing was I didn’t know what the status of the program or what was going to happen. I was working at that point trying to figure out through the back channels, what’s the story? Is our program done, are they going to drop the sport? Can we save it? Whose decision is it? It wasn’t just my own future at stake, but those of the kids, families and alums. The time that elapsed, all those questions were formulated, asked, received then transformed into what ultimately became the platform for reinstating the program. During that time I was working with Eddie Douglas, and he was working with other team leaders, on this mission statement and a statement of core values for the program. Between Eddie and myself, we ranged a long time of the Duke Lacrosse Program as players and as to who we really are, what we stand for and what we believe in. President Broadhead had asked for this. The argument I presented to him is “What people are telling you is not accurate and I can prove it to you, and I can explain it in a written document.” Upon his review of that document, that’s when he felt comfortable enough to move forward with reinstating the program. Eddie wasn’t present at that meeting. All of Eddie’s work was after the semester was over. It was just myself and President Broadhead in his office talking through it all. That was a week prior to the announcement. I’ve got to believe there was a thought that this was either this was the last straw, at which point you’d learn that the program was to be shuttered, or that you’d gone over the top, through the worst of it and things were going to get easier and better.

What prompted you to start developing the documents?
ED: I think a lot of what we did in those months stemmed form the fact that as a team we were fundamentally very proud of what we accomplished on a the lacrosse field and in the broader Duke community. Watching our reputation get taken apart was a painful process. We felt a need to speak up in a positive way and defend the actions that we’d taken that were positive in the community. The challenged we faced was we were involved in a very serious legal proceeding, and later three players specifically were charged with very serious crimes, so we were limited in the types of things we could talk about, making sure the things we said did not in any way jeopardize their trial. The way we decided to go about this was to speak in a general way of the ways we were involved in the community, whether it was volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House, or any of the many other endeavors players participated in. This was a chance for us to provide a picture of who we were as individuals.

What was your relationship with Eddie like?
KC: I never got a chance to play with Eddie. I think he was a walk-on and I don’t think he walked on until his sophomore year, the year after I graduated. But I did get to know him as a coach, and he was mature beyond his years. He developed into a captain. He obviously had a lot of influence over the team. He was, in my opinion, the most well rounded student-athlete and leader in the locker room. He understood above and beyond what it was to be a lacrosse player — a consummate student-athlete, a worldly type of man who had the right perspective to join me in this endeavor. It was important to him.

What was your communication with Coach Cassese like throughout the process?
ED: I think Coach Cassese was an invaluable asset at that time. He’s someone who played at the highest level at Duke and he was extremely well respected on his team and in the community. He shared with us perspective some of the history of what was important to individuals who played prior to our four classes. His perspective was a signpost of past and present, not just the identity at the time. The mission statement, though it gets a lot of press in some ways, it was mainly an opportunity to put down what we had already valued and who we thought we were. We put down in writing what it means to be a Duke lacrosse player and what values were important and we wanted to stand for on campus. I wouldn’t say it was a process that was particularly challenging.

What were some of the program’s core values that you raised?
KC: A lot of it had to do with simple words or phrases. It’s a powerful piece. It talks about this is what we believe in. Hard work. Discipline. Integrity. The challenge was “How we were going to put this thing, which is so much a part of our lives, into words?” The process was very important. It wasn’t as important to us because we knew who we were, but it was more important to President Broadhead and the administration. We didn’t mind telling people who were, what we’re about and what we’re made of.

What was your relationship with President Broadhead like? What was your expectation of his attitude heading into the meeting?
KC: Non-existent. I don’t know that I’d met him. He wasn’t the president when I was in school. I don’t think he’d been there more than a year or two when I came back as a coach. All my interactions were with athletic administrators prior to that meeting.

What were your impressions of him?
KC: I think he catches a lot of flack, and I understand why, mainly because of his inaction in all this. I respect that from all the people that believe that. I do think he was willing and able to listen. I think that’s important, because if he wasn’t, Duke Lacrosse wouldn’t be around right now. I appreciate that opportunity, but we haven’t kept in touch.

How did the conversation unfold? What were the main points of the discussion?
KC: I remember being really nervous and anxious walking in. You have to remember, at the time I was a 25-year old kid who had been coaching for literally a couple years — Stony Brook for one and Duke for half. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just felt I had to get in front of this guy. I felt good about the conversation. I remember he was curious, he didn’t know very much about the sport. He didn’t know enough about the program or what to expect. I was able to put his mind at ease a little bit that lacrosse wasn’t a bunch of barbarians running around campus. I think he and others on campus were being spoon fed that. He asked a lot of questions, he wanted to get to know me, which I thought was good because he wanted to get to know what had sculpted me, which was my Duke lacrosse experience.

How were you informed that things were going to work out in your favor, at least insofar as the program not being canceled? To what degree was yours and Eddie’s performance in that meeting credited?
KC: That positive feedback came instantaneously from the president’s office after our meeting through the administration. I had a friend, Dr. Chris Kennedy, a deputy AD who’s still there, who was extremely instrumental in helping all of us getting this reinstated. Obviously he was guiding me and Eddie through this, and I remember when he came to me and said we got good feedback and it looks like we’re going to be able to move forward.

What’s your recollection of hearing that it had come down in your favor?
ED: Coach Cassese and I were in close communication. The meeting gave President Broadhead a better sense of who we were. I think he was relatively new in his tenure at Duke. This was a chance for us to put ourselves forward in an unfiltered way, something he wasn’t’ getting through the media or through other parts of the administration on campus. The news kind of dribbled out in some sense. Kevin had initial meetings with President Broadhead. It seemed like there was a positive tone after we conveyed the mission statement. I think once that had been received by the university, there was a slow change in the way the program was viewed. When we ultimately got the positive news, it was an immensely rewarding phone call, when we realized we succeeded. I don’t think many of the players, especially the younger ones, realized how close we were to not having a future. I think for many of the older players in the program, for whom transferring wouldn’t have been an option, it was a great relief and a real cause for excitement. For the younger players, I talked to a number of recruits, like Max Quinzani and Parker McKee, convincing them that Duke was a place they should come. It was a relief, I guess I felt some sense of pride, but it was also an indication that the decision was the right one.

What came next?
KC: My next mission for Eddie was to begin contacting all our current players, because they were all granted releases. Our task was to re-recruit all the current players, then all the committed recruits. That was the only group where we lost people. The task Eddie was charged with, 99% of the guys committed to coming back. The one guy who had the most attraction was Zack Greer, who was obviously going to be courted coming off the seasons he’d had. We went from not knowing whether we’d have a team or a program to immediately trying to get back as much of what we’d had as possible.

How did re-committing teammates go?
ED: The funny thing was, I’m sure many of the younger players had conversations with their parents about potentially leaving Duke if there were no lacrosse team, it would’ve been foolish not to discuss it. But I never got the sense that anyone for a minute wanted to jump ship — in many ways you couldn’t have blamed anyone if they’d wanted to — but the commitment was so unwavering that it gave me more belief that we were on the right track. The conversations with the younger classes were one of excitement.

THE LEGACY OF 2006

What was your reaction to Duke’s hiring John Danowski?
KC: My reaction was extremely positive. Matt was still a member of the program at the time. I had a bunch of conversations with him, and I had reached out to Coach Danowski several times during that whole process for advice. I was already talking to the parents of the current players — he was obviously one of those — and with his connections in the coaching world, he stepped us as a mentor for me, as well. We were very close. We had some very private conversations about whether he was interested being the head coach. Obviously, given the way it turned out, he was. I didn’t even think about being the head coach myself in that way. I knew I could do it. I also knew I’d only been in college coaching for a year and a half. So it wasn’t even focused on that, I was focused on making as smooth a transition as I could.

ED: In some respect, Coach Danowski was the perfect fit for the program, especially given the circumstances. He has a counseling background, he has a philosophy that emphasizes personal development.

Did you think Coach Cassese could be elevated from his interim head coach status?
ED: I think at the time, Coach Cassese becoming the head coach was something that no one really thought about given his youth and it seemed the university was looking for an outside hire from the get-go, but what Kevin provided was a connection to the alumni and history of the program and I think that was really important.

In the wake of the preservation of the program, the 2007 national championship game was one of the most-watched and significant games of the last 10 years. What was that like?
KC: The game was really tough. All the credit in the world to Johns Hopkins, but we didn’t put our best foot forward that day and that’s part of the game. I thought Dino did a good job taking the pressure off. I felt like the popular opinion around the country and in the stadium was that we deserved to win because of what we’d been through and that we’d been vindicated. It was tough; it was a tough locker room afterward. Coach Pressler joined us in the locker room. There were a lot tears. It was a long, long year, and that was a tough way to end it. But the thing you remember the most about that team was the camaraderie and playing for those three guys that were incarcerated and had their lives taken from them randomly.

Shortly after the championship game loss, the players were awarded an additional year of eligibility. How did you react to that?
KC: I was happy for the kids. That was my initial reaction. A lot of coaches had mixed reactions because they felt like it was a competitive advantage for Duke to get all these great players back, but my reaction to that was “Tough luck for you guys. If you think that’s a competitive advantage, what about the competitive disadvantage of all the stuff we just went through?”

After spending the 2007 as an assistant, you took the head coach position at Lehigh. What went into that decision, particularly in the context of what you’d experienced the two years prior?
KC: It was a tough decision because I was in the process of getting married to my wife, who is from Bethlehem, Pa. That played a role in the decision, but we’re both Duke alums, had just bought a house in Durham and were starting to get settled down there. I wasn’t looking to make a move, but had this opportunity at Lehigh, I went on the interview at Lehigh and didn’t have any expectations. I felt like if it didn’t work out, I had a great opportunity to come back to at Duke. It was like “Let’s go take a look at this,” and I was overwhelmed by the people, the place Lehigh is and it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I put a lot of energy into the Duke Lacrosse Program and thought it might be time to move on.

The freshmen on that ’06 team won a championship as fifth-year seniors in 2010, Duke’s first. As both an alum and someone who was intimately involved with a hugely formative aspect of the program, what was it like watching that?
KC: That was unbelievable. It was such an emotional rollercoaster. For me, I was focused on my team, I’d been at Lehigh for three years at that point. But I had an eye on the Duke program and had been in touch with Coach Danowski, coach Chris Gabrielli and the players. Watching CJ Costabile come down and score, I couldn’t help but think back to walking into Pres. Broadhead’s office, not know whether there was going to be a program.

How significant do you think winning a championship was in the wake of all that had happened?
ED: To one extent, the crowing achievement that came after shows how the younger classes took the most trying times that a program can face and turned into a catalyst for six straight final fours, a national championship and so many other achievements. The type of response to that type of a crucible of an event is remarkable. For a lot of programs, had this happened, you could’ve seen the program crumble. Even if the program continued on, it might’ve struggled. The younger players and the coaches deserve credit for ensuring that didn’t happen.

Finally, it seems like a no-brainer at this point, but rereading the transcript of the press conference at which you were named interim head coach takes you back to the mood of the day — Duke Lacrosse was still almost viewed as an enemy to goodness — it’s crazy. How vindicated are you by what’s come from Duke Lacrosse over the last six years?
KC: I think that it’s tough to put into words. For me, aside from my family and those who are closest to me, my love was Duke Lacrosse. That was it. That’s where I chose to go to school, where I met my wife, where I became a man. For me, all the stuff that I was doing was a way for me to get back to something that had given so much to me. To watch it get reinstated, then to rise back to national prominence and get recognized for positive reasons and all that comes with that was very special. It’s tough because I have moved on at that point and at Lehigh I was focused on what I was doing there. But it was closure for me — Duke won a national championship, has great leadership, kids and it’s in a great spot.

Quint's Take

ESPN/IL analyst Quint Kessenich, one of IL's main voices for much of its history, will be giving his commentary on the Biggest 15 Stories each week. Here's his take. Follow Quint on twitter @QKessenich.

The effects of the Duke scandal were gigantic. Years later, the damage persists. The scandal illuminated some very poignant stereotypes about lacrosse players. Then, just when it appeared as if the lacrosse community was clawing its way back to respectability, Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely murdered women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love, bringing those same stereotypes back to light. Huguely's lifestyle, one too often associated with lacrosse, was exposed. Unfortunately for lacrosse, the Duke and Huguely scandals are much too high on the list of many Americans’ first thoughts on the sport.

It's been a devastating one-two punch from a PR standpoint. Damage control is ongoing, and slow.

At the heart of both scandals are drugs and alcohol. Critics take free shots at drug and alcohol abuse by lacrosse athletes. Anybody who says the abuse is not a significant problem has their head buried in the sand.

Lacrosse has an image problem, and the “lax bro” isn't helping matters. “Lax bro” acts like a jerk at school, at the mall, at the party, on the field and on Facebook and Twitter. We need for the "lax bro" to love the game, but respect it by minding his manners and behaving like an outstanding citizen while thriving in the classroom and achieving on the field.

How does the lacrosse community strengthen its image?

Stay out of trouble.

Represent yourself, your family, your team and your school in a first-class manner.

Always be aware that you represent the sport while in airports, hotels, restaurants and during all travel associated with playing.

Respect the game by playing with great sportsmanship.

Always play hard and have fun.

Achieve in the classroom.

Foster diversity.

Volunteer and take part in community outreach programs.

Celebrate greatness. Promote the top personal stories and top players in the game.

The vast majority of lacrosse players do these things regularly. Lacrosse’s greatest players typically have also been among the most generous in giving back. High school, college and pro stars regularly act like heroes, to youth players and in the community. We need to make sure those are the stories people tell about lacrosse; that’s the introduction people get to the sport. Not the 1% that have given lacrosse a bad name.

Lacrosse is a beautiful game that goes back centuries to the Native Americans. It’s the Creator’s Game and has significant spiritual meaning. It may also be the oldest team sport on the planet. And today, it's the duty of those who play lacrosse to uphold, not tarnish, the spirit of the game.

Check back to InsideLacrosse.com as we count down all 15. Want some input or have some feedback? Email mattkinnear@insidelacrosse.com.

Also, get ready for IL's 2013 slate of events: March 9 at the Whitman's Sampler Independence Classic (St. John's-Syracuse, Lehigh-Penn State and Villanova-Penn) at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.; March 16 at the Whitman's Sampler Mile High Classic (Denver-Notre Dame and Loyola-Air Force) at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo.; March 23 at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic (Johns Hopkins-Virginia and Colgate-Navy) at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md.; and the Konica Minolta Big City Classic (Syracuse-Notre Dame and Cornell-Princeton) at MetLife Stadium in E. Rutherford, N.J.). And don't forget IL's Powerball Lacrosse Tournament, July 12-14 at Richard Stockton College near Atlantic City, N.J.